The new swim platform is nearing completion. The last strips have
been sprung into place, screwed down, trimmed and given a preliminary
sanding. The last remaining assembly step is to glue teak plugs into
the mounting holes, trim and sand flush.

Next is the big decision - how to finish it, if at all. The choices
go something like this:

Leave it totally natural, the "gray is beautiful" approach (like the
swim ladder).

Oil it with teak oil - looks very good initially but tends to darken
with age and collect dirt.

Varnish bare wood. Looks extremely good but is high maintenance and
requires periodic stripping and do over (like the transom).

Seal it with several coats of low viscosity penetrating epoxy and then
varnish. The sealed wood tends to hold varnish better but stripping
is much more difficult.

All constructive suggestions welcome.

Befo

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9...onstructio.jpg

After:

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3...earlycompl.jpg